iPhone Photo Library "Ghost" Space

Unfortunately, I am having the same problem, but since I regularly delete all photos from Recently Deleted right after deleting them from my Photos albums, finding the right time at which they were still in Recent Photos is fairly impossible. It could be anytime between a few seconds to several minutes after I deleted the Photos from my albums, and I've tried several times of the same previous day, but I can't find any photos at all in Recently Deleted.

Sorry, but can you explain what it is you are asking? The post you are responding to is almost 3 years old, and you need to put your current question in context. Also, what model device, what iOS?

Cheers,

GB

I have an iPhone 5S. It's showing usage of 4GB for only 500 photos and 1 regular video (less than 2 mins).

How many photos do you have in the Recently Deleted folder? What is the average size of each photo? What is the size of the video? You can (and should) transfer the photos and video to your computer, the same way you would with any other digital camera.

I have the same issue since updating to IOS 8.1.2. At first sync the file size according to Settings>Usage has doubled (iTunes seems to show these as Others) then I removed all photos from the iPhone (none visible in the app) but usage still shows photos at the inflated size of 8.1 GB. Cannot get rid of it. iTunes does not seem to be able to remove photos from the iPhone, every sync tries to add the same photos again, Other files size growing constantly.

Further to this post I noticed that although I cannot see any photos in the iPhone app, the iTunes summary still showed 4+GB photos and the ever growing (by now about 7+GB) Other files (still showing 8.1GB in the Settings>Usage for photos only leaving 2+GB free on the phone). After numerous resets and sync of the iPhone, finally got to 6.2GB free space, iTunes showing 0 for photos, but iPhone Settings>Usage still showing 4+GB for photos (was the original size of photos on my iPhone). It appears due to some file corruption the original photo library is still on the phone but inaccessible to iTunes and the iPhone Photos app.

Open the Photos app. There will be a folder of recently deleted photos (a new feature in iOS 8.1). You will probably find the deleted images there. You can delete them permanently from that folder.

Lawrence, not sure which post you respond to here, but in my case NONE, since all the space (even in Settings>Usage) refers to synced photos, which I am unable to delete locally.

That's correct; you cannot delete synced photos locally. You need to connect the phone to iTunes and "unsync" them. Connect the phone, click on its name or icon, click on Photos.

Thanks Lawrence, I have already unsynced them. Zero GB photos shown in iTunes summary (storage status bar at the bottom of the window), with lots of Other. No pictures visible in iPhone Photo app (only two folders; Recently Added and Recently Deleted - all empty) yet Settings>Usage shows 4.1GB for Photos. The same size the synced photo content used to be when synced (as per iTunes status bar). So the amount of photos stored according to Settings>Usage has halved, but none can be accessed anymore though iPhone Photos app or iTunes sync.

OK, the next step is to try one of the iPhone file browser apps, such as TouchCopy.

Many thanks. I have fond lots of images and movies in DCIM/103APPLE (there are five folders in DCIM: .MISC plus 100APPLE to 103APPLE). Can these be deleted?

Additionally I have also found photos long deleted but still listed under the Photos tab in TouchCopy. None of these can be picked up by Photos app on the phone or iPhoto on the Mac when attached.

Do an iTunes backup first for safety, then you can delete them.

Thanks, Lawrence. Found too many orphan images in various mysterious folders so gone for an iPhone restore. Seems to have removed the ghost files for now, yet to see what happens at subsequent syncs (i.e. if it is a IOS bug or just the consequence of the IOS update process itself).